The invention relates to a guide arrangement for guiding an object over a kinked path having first and second path path sections which are inclined relative to one another. An object carrier is movable along the path, a stationary guide plate having a plurality of mutually offset profiled grooves profiled in conformity with the path. Guide members connected to the object carrier engage the profiled grooves so as to be movable in the grooves, and have a transverse dimension corresponding at least substantially to the width of the respective profiled grooves.
Such a guide arrrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,424 and is intended for guiding a magnetic-tape cassette to its operating position in a magnetic-tape apparatus by means of the object carrier via the front side of this apparatus. The magnetic-tape cassette is transported over a path comprising a horizontal and vertical path section. During this transport guidance is provided by profiled grooves each having portions which extend in the guide plate in conformity with the respective path sections. During the transition from the horizontal to the vertical path section the guide members of the object carrier, which are constructed as rollers, experience a certain instability. This instability occurs in the kink of the path and hence in the bends of the profiled grooves where the tangent to the path is perpendicular to the line interconnecting the rollers. In order to compensate for this instability the guide plate of the known guide arrangement has a first and a second profiled groove, which are disposed in line horizontally, and a third profiled groove, which is disposed at a lower level, resulting in a comparatively large overall height and depth of the object carrier and the guide plate and hence of the guide arrangement.